I thought this would be a good place to have a dedicated thread for this now that there's more of us that are finally all in this thing. This first post will be updated with all the members here in the preview program. That way we all know what the hells going on with it!

So tell me if you're in the preview program. So far I think those of us in are...

This is a big month for Xbox One as we launch some of the features you’ve asked for most including better multitasking while gaming, more ways to stay connected with friends, new options for accessing your media, and more. Over the past couple months, we’ve been rolling out some great new features to Xbox One through our system updates, and we have been thrilled with the positive feedback we’ve received from all of you. Keep it coming! There’s more new features rolling out to Xbox Live members in our preview program starting today, and over the next week or so, in two major themes.

New Snap and Friends functions

o Snap Updates – We’ve updated the Snap Center to include quick access to many of the things our fans wanted faster access to when playing a game – Friends, Messages, Game DVR, clock, and battery indicator – as well as making it easier to close and open new snap apps when playing a game. A double tap of the Xbox button on your controller will bring up a menu that allows you to open a new app in snap mode, close the current snapped app, or switch focus between your game and your running snapped app. Additionally, two apps have been optimized for Snap mode:

Friends Snap App – Access your friends list without leaving the game. Quickly check your friends list to see who’s online right now and take actions like send message, invite or join.

Messages Snap App – You’ll be able to open, read and respond to messages in Snap mode, and messages will now be displayed in a threaded conversation view.

o Achievements App – Updated to enable sharing of achievements you’ve unlocked with captions, see a list of friends who have unlocked specific achievements, and an updated achievements Snap landing page that that shows Achievements on recently played games, when a user is not actively playing a game.

o Friends section – The new Friends section enables you to see at a glance what’s going on with your friends. You can stay up-to-date with their current activities, the most popular games your friends are playing, and a Gamerscore leaderboard to see who has improved their Gamerscore over the last 30 days. The new Friends section has been available for select preview members for a few weeks and now we’re bringing it to everyone in the program, with plans to roll out this feature for all Xbox One owners with the October system update.

o New SmartGlass features – You can now see a list of your top games in your profile. You can also see a list of your friend’s most popular games in the Friend’s section of SmartGlass.Improvements for TV and video

o Media Player DLNA and MKV support – Members of the preview program who have also downloaded the latest version of the Media Player app will now have support for DLNA streaming. With this update, you will be able to easily access and play music, watch photo slideshows or movies stored on home media servers and devices that support the DLNA server protocols. Additionally, you will now be able to playback MKV files stored on a USB device or a device on your home network that supports DLNA streaming.

o Live TV Trending – Within the next week, you will be able to see what Live TV is trending based on your country and OneGuide settings. A new tab will be available in OneGuide that displays the top 10 most watched TV shows, with the list filtered down to the shows that are currently available to you based on your OneGuide settings. You will be able to tune to a specific show by pressing the A button. The Live TV Trending list will be updated approximately every minute, so you can easily discover shows that are popular with other viewers. This feature will initially be made available to preview users in the U.S., Canada and the UK.

o Xbox One Digital TV Tuner – Previously announced in August, this new accessory will be available for purchase in UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain on October 21. This USB-attached TV Tuner will enable users to watch TV on Xbox One, and pause Live TV for up to 30 minutes. There are a limited number of preview participants in this program due to hardware requirements needed for testing.

Stream TV to SmartGlass – If you have an Xbox One Digital TV Tuner, you will be able to stream TV across your home network to your smartphone or tablet using the Xbox SmartGlass app. You can also pause, play, rewind and change channels, without interrupting gameplay.

o Live TV MiniGuide – For markets where OneGuide is available, a new MiniGuide on the bottom of the screen will display details about the TV content that is currently playing. You can quickly change channels, see what’s on other channels, and tune to the previous channel or other recent channels.

o OneGuide in 12 new countries – Live TV listings and schedules will be made available to preview members on Xbox One and SmartGlass for Belgium, Chile, Columbia, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia in the next few days.

o Internet TV Apps – Apps with live TV channels can now include their TV listings within OneGuide. In addition, other Xbox TV features such as channel changing using speech and Miniguide will work with these apps. These features are enabled automatically the first time you sign into a supported app. The first app to support this feature in preview will be Zattoo, a TV provider available in several European markets. We will be sharing more details soon with members of the public preview.

o Universal Remote Control in SmartGlass – If you are in one of those 12 countries, you will also be able use your mobile device to control your Xbox, TV, and/or Cable/Satellite box.Other user requested features

o Updated Devices & Accessories page – To access the new page, go inside Settings, where you can Find, Assign, and Update Xbox One accessories. You can now more easily “assign” accessories to specific users, such as assigning a headset to a specific gamer.

o Firmware updates – You can update the firmware for an individual device. And, you can also more easily find (or identify) a controller by making it vibrate.

o Hide Games & Apps on your console – You can now hide items in the “Ready to install” list under My Games & Apps. This is a per-console setting and items will reappear in the list if they are installed again from the Xbox Store. To access the shortcut to temporarily show “hidden” items, press X while holding down both triggers and it will show all hidden items until you exit My Games & Apps.

These new features and updates are rolling out to all Xbox One preview program members starting today. We are looking forward to bringing Xbox One to new markets this month, and can’t wait to hear from fans in those markets who get to pick up and play Xbox One for the first time. Plus, these new features will be available in all of our new markets for Xbox One owners who join the preview program.

Show Who You Are – Some of the most requested features being released this month include the ability to customize your Xbox One background and showcase and share some of your favorite achievements and game clips. Custom Backgrounds – The #1 fan-requested feature is making its initial debut for preview members. For the first time, each account on your Xbox One can have a customized background. You can choose a custom color or achievement art as your background on Xbox One, with more customization options coming down the road. Gamer Profile – You can now share your location and bio as part of your profile. You can set these options on your Xbox One console and use Xbox One SmartGlass to browse to other people’s profiles and check out their showcase items. Additionally, you can now select a set of showcase items that are displayed when other gamers look at your profile on an Xbox One console. You can use Xbox One SmartGlass or Xbox One console to add or remove up to six game clips or achievements that will be displayed in a carousel format. Tweet about your Favorite Game Clips – You can now share your favorite Xbox One game clips with your followers on Twitter. Use the Share button on any game clip you have created and select Twitter to compose the Tweet.

A New Way to Watch TV – With new Live TV and Twitter integration, you can discover new shows to love and see what people are saying on Twitter about shows in real-time. Live TV Trending – Starting today for preview members in the U.S., Canada and the UK, a new tab will be available in OneGuide that displays the top 20 most watched TV shows, with the list filtered down to the shows that are currently available to you based on your OneGuide settings. The Live TV Trending list is updated by the minute, so you can easily discover shows that are popular with other viewers. The Trending tab in OneGuide is updated to display Twitter – Live TV trending first and Xbox – Live TV Trending second. You can tune to a specific show by pressing the A button. Twitter TV Trending – New this month in preview, you can see what Live TV is trending based on the highest number of tweets. Twitter TV Trending will initially be available to preview members in the U.S. Xbox TV Trending – The Trending tab in OneGuide is updated to display Twitter trending first and Xbox – Live TV Trending second. Xbox – Live TV Trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level. Tweets in MiniGuide – See the actual tweets for the Live TV shows in real time and quickly find the Twitter #hashtag to join the conversation. Recents and Favorites in MiniGuide – MiniGuide has been updated to include your favorite TV channels in a combined Recents and Favorites area and MiniGuide can now be activated via voice by saying “Xbox Select – MiniGuide” while watching TV.

Store improvements and SmartGlass updates – We are also excited to roll out these cool features: Store improvements – The Store pages on Xbox One have been improved to enable you to more quickly browse and find content. The navigation buttons were moved to the far left so you can find them easier. You can also more quickly find game add-ons, perform store specific searches and recommendations are more prominently displayed. Finally, store categories have been standardized so you can easily see the top items in each query at a glance. Friends’ Game Activity on SmartGlass – You can now see a list of your friends that have played a given game within the Xbox One SmartGlass experience. Games with Gold & Deals with Gold on SmartGlass – For gamers with an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you can browse “Free Games with Gold” and discounted content with Gold and initiate download of the content to your Xbox One console from your mobile device. SmartGlass Store Improvements – We added a new section for Apps to make it easier to find and download apps for your Xbox One, as well as adding a Coming Soon filter for Games and Add Ons to make it easier to see upcoming Xbox One releases sorted by anticipated release date.

Internet Explorer updates – There are a few improvements Internet Explorer available this month: Snap IE – From the Address Bar in Internet Explorer, you can now easily snap from a full screen experience and move Internet Explorer into snap mode. Featured sites – Now, Internet Explorer will show a number when something is newly-added to featured sites. Newly-added sites will also display a badge until you launch them or seven days have passed since the site was added to the Featured list.

Updates to the Preview dashboard app – We’re gamifying the Preview dashboard. Here are some new features we are adding: My Stats – If you are in the Preview program, you will now earn points for providing feedback, including points for completing Quests, Surveys, Quick Poll questions, and rating the update. These will be shared in the Preview dashboard under My Stats. The more points you get, the more you level up, and the more rewards you’ll earn. Keep checking back for special bonus point opportunities. Leaderboard – We’re also adding a leaderboard that shows how you stack up against your friends based on the points you have earned. If you don’t have friends in the Preview program, we’ll show how you stack up against others in the program. Keep checking back – more things are coming to the My Stats page soon.

These new features and updates are rolling out to all Xbox One preview program members starting today and will launch for everyone in November.

SO ARE SOME OF YOU THAT ARE IN THE FIRST POST OF THIS THREAD... 2OC TIME BABY!

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Welcome to the next evolution of Halo combat! As a valued Xbox One Preview participant registered in the program as of this morning, we’re excited to offer you an invitation-only early access opportunity to help us prepare for the public launch of the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta that takes place from December 29th – January 18th. This beta is a massive undertaking for everyone at 343 Industries and we’re happy to have you join us for this exclusive event.

This early access period, which begins on December 19th and ends at 11:59PM PST December 21st, will only feature content from Week 1 of the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, whereas the full beta will feature a total of 7 maps, 3 game types and a host of weapons that are released across the 3-week period. The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta is a true “working beta” and represents a work-in-progress snapshot of a game in production. This is the earliest release for any beta in the history of the Halo franchise. Our focus is on testing the gameplay systems and services for the game so we can then use this data to improve the final release in fall of 2015. You may experience bugs while playing, but this is normal in a beta period and is useful for our development teams. Additionally, the visuals (including resolution) are not fully representative of the final product.

The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta is only a portion of the epic plans we have for the full multiplayer suite when the game ships next year and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

On the 19th, you’ll receive a message from Xbox Live on your Xbox profile containing 2 codes you need to redeem to get into the early access for the Beta.

The first code allows you to download the Beta to your console, and the second code is a small download that grants you access. You will need to redeem both tokens on your Xbox One console or on Xbox.com to participate in the early access period for the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. Be aware that redeeming one token will not allow you to participate; both are necessary.

Please note that these tokens are intended solely for your personal use as a Preview participant. Any attempt to sell, give away, or trade these tokens will have consequences, up to and including removal from the Preview program and exclusion from future participation.

Once you’ve downloaded and received access to the game, you can report bugs and issues via the Feedback app.

1. After encountering an issue, hold down the Xbox button on the controller and select Give Feedback from the power menu.2. Describe the bug or issue you experienced, and submit.

Starting today, members of the Xbox One preview program will get to check out these new features first:

Game hubs – New in preview this month, game hubs are the go-to centers for all sorts of interesting content around your favorite games. Every Xbox One game will have a game hub where you can see which of your friends are playing the game, compete with your friends in game leaderboards, dive into the coolest game clips and game broadcasts, and follow the game’s VIPs and top players. To get to the game hub for your favorite game, find a game in your pins, recently played list, or My games and apps, then press the Menu button and select View game hub. You can also search for any game in the Xbox Store and click on the game hub tile from the game’s store page. Custom backgrounds and tile transparency – We listened to your feedback and added additional tile transparency to the Home tiles to make your background images more visible. As a reminder, to set a custom background, go to Settings > My Xbox > My background. Note: some items can’t be made transparent due to usage rights/restrictions for certain images. TV updates – We’re releasing a lot of updates to the live TV experience and features are being released to additional countries in preview this month:

OneGuide for the Netherlands – Support for OneGuide will continue in preview for the Netherlands and the missing channels for the Netherlands OneGuide listings will become available over the next few weeks.

TV trending in OneGuide – As you scan the detailed OneGuide TV listings, you can see which shows are trending by a “Trending on Xbox” note and associated icon.

Xbox – live TV trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level. Currently, Xbox TV trending is available to all members in the U.S., UK and Canada.

Improved control of TVs, set-top boxes and audio/video receivers – Xbox One will work even better with more devices. This month’s preview release contains updates to the IR blasting database for new models and addresses issues reported by our fan community.

“Trick play” with Xbox One Digital TV Tuner – Preview members with the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner in supported countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) will now be able to see video frames when fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV on your Xbox One consoles.

Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android – We are continuing the preview of live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android devices for Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

We’re excited to start the New Year off on the right foot by continuing our commitment to making Xbox One the best place to play. Let us know what you think of this month’s preview and stay tuned for more news on Xbox One system updates.